RUBBER

STARRING: Stephen Spinella, Jack Plotnick, Wings Hauser, Roxane Mesquida, Ethan Cohn, Charley Koontz, Daniel Quinn, Devin Brochu, Hayley Holmes, Haley Ramm, Cecelia Antoinette, David Bowe, Remy Thorne, Tara Jean O'Brien, Thomas F. Duffy

2010, 85 Minutes, Directed by: Quentin Dupieux

A sentient rubber tire named Robert goes on a serial killing spree in the Californian desert, making people’s heads explode with his (its?) telekinetic powers . . .

Yup, it’s either the punch line to a Gary Larson cartoon . . . or French. It should therefore come as no surprise that this oddball flick is written and directed by one Quentin Dupieux.

Before the marketing material and synopsis (watch the trailer here) make you believe that Rubber plays it straight as the latest lame-o SyFy channel horror flick, think again. The movie can at best be described as a mixture between early Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch. If you count yourself a fan of these directors then the chances are good then you’d appreciate the surreal, postmodern oddity that is Rubber. There is no plot logic at all to the dream-like proceedings as a Sheriff and his deputies set off in pursuit of what is probably the strangest serial killer in all of movie history.

It has been such a long while since someone actually made a weird movie just for the sake of being weird in today’s conformist Hollywood that one can’t help but like Rubber; even when the movie seem to roll about in search of a coherent plot towards the end of its very brief running time of 85 minutes.

Rubber has “cult” written all over it – and like most cults you’ll either get it . . . or you won’t. Sometimes one wants to like something simply because it is different without being genuinely good, but Rubber is the real deal: it is a one of kind experience and highly recommended for fans of the bizarre and offbeat.